North News editor-in-chief eyewitness

By Harry Colbert, Jr., Editor-in-Chief

North News does not operate as a “breaking news” or daily publication and tends to refrain from “on-the-scene” crime coverage.

Recognizing that, I wrestled with if or how I should report on this morning’s (Jan. 14) police involved shooting in the Victory Neighborhood. The trepidation stems from the fact that I was a direct witness to the shooting. As such, I feel an obligation to the readers of North News to provide an account. I will offer the perspective of an objective journalist and one as a resident of North Minneapolis shaken to the core by what I witnessed firsthand.

Bullet holes riddle a car following a shootout between a driver and police. According to police the driver is believed to have pulled a gun on someone moments before a short chase. Photo by Harry Colbert, Jr.

According to John Elder of Minneapolis Police Department, police got a call that a person pointed a gun at a caller. Elder said police located the suspect at Logan and Lowry Avenues North and initiated a "low speed" chase that ended when the suspect crashed into a stop sign in the Victory Neighborhood (I’m being intentionally vague about the exact location as I do not want to publicize my address). Police attempted to extract the suspect using flashlights to break the glass when the driver fired upon the officers, who returned fire. Later additional officers arrived and began using less lethal rounds and the suspect was taken into custody and transported by ambulance to North Memorial Hospital with what are being called non-life-threatening injuries.

Elder said police body cameras were activated at the time of the incident.

Now, as a witness, I will offer my account and perspective.

My account doesn’t differ from the official police statement delivered to me. I have a wholly unique perspective. I saw everything (minus me ducking for cover) from just before the shooting until the ambulance drove away with the individual who was in the vehicle.

Looking out of my window at a distance of about a throw from third base to first base – 127 feet; 42 or so yards – I watched an exchange of gunfire that lasted several minutes. It was probably shorter than it seemed, but I would guess at least 10 minutes from start to finish. I saw and heard the first shot, which from my perspective seemed to have been fired from inside the suspect vehicle. I watched officers return fire … and return fire. There was a lull in the shooting then it began again. And later there was a big white van that brought more officers. At this point I noticed an officer with an orange shotgun approach and we heard a few more shots. I assume the orange gun was the one firing the “less lethal” rounds.

Shortly after the individual in the vehicle was again commanded to exit the vehicle, which he did through the passenger side. My home (I’m intentional to say home, not house) faced the driver’s side of the vehicle, so at this point my view is obstructed, but I hear officers communicating with the individual. Soon after an ambulance arrived, I awaited the coroner’s van. I was sure someone was dead. Thankfully my assumption was inaccurate.

I went outside and could hear the subject of the chase and shooting saying, “What’s going on? Why am I shot, why am I in handcuffs?” I couldn’t tell if the person was asking out of a want to know why the chase and shooting or if it was a delirious response from an individual unaware of the actions that just took place. Either way, he was alive. For that I’m thankful. I’m not at all saying he doesn’t deserve to be held accountable (to the fullest extent of the law) for his actions, but the officers on the scene didn’t get to make that determination. That being said – and I’m not saying, having been shot at, that force was not required – at last count of marked shell casings the number was 68.

As I told Reg Chapman of WCCO, whether citizen on citizen violence or police on citizen violence, the common denominator is violence and we have to work together to eradicate both.

I believe Minneapolis Police acted within their rights and within the law in this incident and I’m beyond pleased to now know what that orange gun is all about … less lethal rounds.

As for me, I’m shaken to the core, but no less devoted to my job of bringing truth to light and no less devoted in my love for North Minneapolis.

Police involved Victory Neighborhood shooting shakes residents to the core; highlights new de-escalation policies